Cameron: It's taken longer than hoped but economy is healing

David Cameron and Nick Clegg have reiterated their belief the UK economy is on the mend, despite its route to recovery being far longer than anyone predicted.

The under pressure team said they remained 'pro growth and pro enterprise' as they looked back over their time in coalition, and forward to the next election.

Last week saw the Labour Party begin limbering up for the next vote as it unveiled a plan to cut tax relief on pensions for high earners in order to help support those out of work.

But Tory leader and prime minister Cameron and Clegg, his deputy in the House of Commons and leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the coalition's current austerity strategy was working and the deficit was coming down.

'I'm comfortable the British economy is healing, that we are doing the right thing to tackle the terrible black hole, that we are putting money back into people's pockets,' Clegg said.

While Clegg said 'of course' he wanted fast growth, many forecasters had underestimated the time needed to recover from the financial crisis and the subsequent recessions that followed it.

'The time needed to heal the UK economy has taken longer than anyone expected,' he said.

While any government would have to continue to repair the British economy during the parliament's next term, Cameron (pictured) used the coalition's mid-term review to highlight the steps it had taken to help the UK recover, including schemes to boost lending for businesses, tax reforms and help for hard working but low earning families.

'It is understandably a difficult environment, but we are a pro growth, pro business, pro enterprise government,' the prime minister said.

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